Please see my guest blog post titled “SPIRITUAL? RELIGIOUS? GO FIGURE” at AA Beyond Belief, a Web site dedicated to the following: Our pledge […] Read More
Category: Blog
The pain of rejection and social isolation is real. It’s as real as any other kind of wounding, and just as damaging. Our hearts get broken, our feelings get hurt, we feel emotional pain—we use such terms to describe something that is not visible, not tangible, yet this poetic language describes phenomenon that can be explained scientifically as well.
Today author David B. Bohl, an independent addiction consultant and licensed clinical substance abuse counselor, is here to share his story with us. David and I discuss his experiences of alcohol addiction and sobriety, how our lives as adoptees are so much more than just our adoption experience, and what is working right now in the recovery field.
Getting sober and clean for the first time is probably one of the biggest events in the life of a person with substance-use disorder. For […] Read More
A recent billboard advertising quitting smoking made me think about what it actually means to quit. Is all quitting created equal? Is there better or […] Read More
Shame. It’s a monster that has been ever-present in my life from as far as I can remember. Before I had a name for it, […] Read More
I don’t know if things would’ve turned out differently for me, but I know that it took me a long time and a lot of […] Read More
If you spend long enough time in recovery, you will encounter many different ways of describing what happened, what has been going on, and what’s […] Read More
Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back to the place I was before Relax’ said the […] Read More
What doesn’t kill you… makes you stronger? Not necessarily. Not if you don’t learn from it. If you do what could potentially kill you, again, […] Read More
The “war stories” of people with substance-use disorder prove to be some of the most enticing stories, judging how popular they are. They can be […] Read More
One of the hottest topics in how society might be about to change, and that is causing a lot of emotion and political upheaval lately, […] Read More
The science of psychology has been attempting, for years, to classify and identify personality traits that would categorize people—especially those with mental-health issues—and put them […] Read More
Recently, I attended a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) event on Attachment and Connection, where the facilitator of the program bashed U.S. President Donald Trump and […] Read More
According to one definition, “Defined by a fusion of rage and desire, tormented by unfulfilled cravings and insatiably demanding impossible satisfactions, hungry ghosts are condemned […] Read More
“Far more than a quest for pleasure, chronic substance use is the addict’s attempt to escape distress.” ~ Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts […] Read More
What does it mean to belong? This is a question that’s always been on my mind—ever since I knew I was relinquished, ever since I […] Read More
I’ve been really lucky to have a supportive partner throughout my journey of recovery, but I know that this is often not the case when […] Read More
I’ll just straight say it: I haven’t felt this angry in a long time. Recently, I met a mother of an adult adopted son who […] Read More
For as long as I’ve been immersing myself in the field of addiction and recovery, I’ve always had questions about what causes addiction. I’ve asked […] Read More